Posts
May 11, 2009
Author: Jason Hiner
Written to help new users to avoid discouragement and maximize their use of Twitter:
Step 1 - Confusion and indignation
- Who should I follow?
- He recommends the Suggested Users feature. He also put together a list of tech personalities he recommends.
- Why do I care that they are walking their dog or what they are having for lunch?
- This kind of post is why new users to Twitter find it hard to understand if Twitter has any value for them.
- It often causes people to shake their heads and not come back
- At this stage, they rarely post.
- They use twitter.com to access it
- Eventually, if they occasionally check, they will find something they wouldn't have known about any other way and they realize it might be useful.
- They still are rarely posting (if at all).
- They use twitter.com to access it.
- After an Aha! moment, they typically start checking it more often.
- They start thinking "I should post this on Twitter" if they find something useful (but may or may not)
- They are still using twitter.com to access it.
- They are following a good mix of friends, news feeds, industry celebrities and thought leaders.
- Once a person becomes a daily Twitter user, it's over. They are now hooked and on their way to becoming a power user.
- Twitter.com is no longer suitable, they switch to Tweetdeck or Seesmic and often a mobile client on their phone such as UberTwitter for Blackberry or Tweetie for iPhone. Those without smartphone use Twitter via SMS text messages.
- They will regularly unfollow people who post inance messages or doesn't post useful stuff.
- They tend to regularly think about and look for things to post on Twitter throughtout the day
- They self-edit their thoughts into 140 characters.
